Duke women’s basketball struggles against N.C. State defense, falls to Wolfpack 84-60

The poor offense Duke displayed while squandering a second-half lead in a Thursday night loss to Virginia Tech accompanied the Blue Devils to Raleigh on Sunday.

That doomed Duke to becoming the latest victim of an N.C. State blowout ACC women’s basketball win.

The No. 16 Blue Devils had more turnovers than field goals in the first half, which left them in a 20-point hole that turned into an 84-60 loss to the No. 4 Wolfpack at Reynolds Coliseum.

Back at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Thursday night, Duke built a seven-point halftime lead over the Hokies. But the Blue Devils hit only 26.9% of their second-half shots to suffer a 65-54 loss to Virginia Tech.

Not much changed two days later. Duke started 3 of 17 from the field. At halftime, it had made 8 of 29 shots (27.6%) and turned the ball over 11 times. The Wolfpack led by 10 points after one quarter and as many as 23 in the second quarter before taking a 42-22 halftime lead.

The ugly aggregate total showed Duke having made 15 of 55 shots (27.3%) over four consecutive quarters covering the last half against Virginia Tech and the first half against N.C. State.

N.C. State simply suffocated Duke’s offense. The Blue Devils were content to settle for jump shots rather than attempt shots in the lane with Wolfpack 6-6 senior center Elissa Cunane waiting to swat them away. But that didn’t work as Duke missed seven of its first eight 3-pointers and was 4 of 14 at halftime.

A 44% shooting team for the season, the Blue Devils (11-4, 2-3 ACC) played their second consecutive game without starting guard Celeste Taylor, who suffered an upper-body injury in a collision during Duke’s 74-65 ACC win at Syracuse on Jan. 9. Over Duke’s first 13 games, Taylor averaged 11.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game while playing a team-high 27.7 minutes per game. So that’s a big absence.

Duke did have Lexi Gordon back to face the Wolfpack. Gordon, averaging 9.8 points while playing 27 minutes per game, sat out Thursday night’s loss to Virginia Tech due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Gordon didn’t start, but played 30 minutes against N.C. State. Her 2-of-10 shooting day contributed to the Blue Devils’ woes as she scored seven points.

Elizabeth Balogun, Duke’s 6-1 senior forward, made just 3 of 11 shots to score nine points.

The Blue Devils obviously needed more if they wanted to stay competitive with N.C. State (16-2, 7-0 ACC). Even as Duke shot better in the second half, Cunane (23 points) was too productive for the Blue Devils to catch up.